Bowl House Project Nears Completion! by Jeff Waldron

The summer of 2011 marks the fifth year in which the new restroom facility beneath the Mission Gables Bowl House has been available for Summer Music Festival patrons.  This is also the second year since the beautiful new Talbert Courtyard was completed and first opened for use.  With the exception of final landscaping, the front access ramp and front yard are now complete, and the exterior of Mission Gables has been painted.

All of the progress to date has been the result of a close cooperation between the City of Redlands and the Redlands Community Music Association, as well as the generosity of many private donors.  Because of that generosity, we were able to complete the Talbert Courtyard, front yard and building exterior, and are now in a position to invite bids on the third and final construction phase of the project.

By this fall, we should be under construction and on the way to completing the interior of the building.  The ultimate realization of our efforts to save, restore and adaptively reuse this historic building located in the Smiley Park historic district is not far off.

Once completed, the building will contain Redlands Community Music Association offices, a small museum for displaying Summer Music Festival artifacts, much needed storage space, and a recital hall on the second floor.  It will be fully handicap accessible and will complement the Bowl and Smiley Park with beautiful landscaping.  The completed Mission Gables Bow House will prove a new venue for our Festival Children’s Music Workshops and will also enable the RCMA to offer many other music-related services, especially to the children, but to all the citizens of Redlands throughout the year.

With your help, we will be able to complete this building to serve many future generations of Bowl audiences.  If you are interested in partnering with the

 RCMA and the other wonderful private donors who have created this new music resource for our town, please contact the Bowl office at 909-793-7316 or the project manager Jeff Waldron at 909-793-9894.